


Temptation and Love

by KannaOphelia



Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: 3rd Century CE, Ancient Rome, Book Characterisations, Canon - Book, Chocolate Box 2021, First Valentines, Historical References, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), Kissing, M/M, One Shot, Or at least the first hints of it, Saying "I love you" without the words, Stolen Moments, The Arrangement (Good Omens)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:08:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29390316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KannaOphelia/pseuds/KannaOphelia
Summary: Crowley's nature was temptation and Aziraphale's was love, but in four thousand years of friendship it would have been odd if neither had learned from the other.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 39
Kudos: 126
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Temptation and Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Voleste](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Voleste/gifts).



Aziraphale moved quietly and swiftly along the balcony, having used a slight, excusable miracle to get him back to his villa undetected. After all, his movements needed not to be traceable to the Emperor's protegee. There was a shadow on the wall that was darker than the rest of the night. Although snakes were not usually active in the cold evening Aziraphale was not entirely surprised to see a long, serpentine shadow curled on the stone wall. It had been a while, but there were reasons to expect the serpent to be lurking.

He leaned over the wall, carefully looking at the leaves of the fig tree blocking out some of the starless night sky, and not at the snake. "I was visiting a friend of mine," he remarked to the tree. It seemed fitting. It had been an apple, not a fig, and certainly not a pomegranate, but the stories were already getting confused with time. "Bishop Valentinus. I had promised to safely convey a young Christian couple to him to be married. Imagine my surprise when he said my need was no longer required. A young man with dark hair and dark raiment had already helped them."

The shadow unwound and took on human form, slim and graceful. With angelic vision, Aziraphale could pick out the gleaming yellow eyes and olive skin even in the night. Crowley settled as casually on the wall as if maintaining balance wasn't an issue.

"I was in the area. You mentioned what your assignment was going to be last time we met, and I thought, why be silly about it? Kill two birds with one stone. Your assignment is fulfilled, and I get to help people break the law. Got to be a major sin, that. And marriage. Think of all the frustration and cause of sin it creates. Wrath, adultery..."

"Practically demonic."

"That's what I thought."

Crowley leaned in, eyebrow raised questioningly, and Aziraphale gave him a kiss. Just the simple kiss of greeting and gratitude between friendly acquaintances. He wasn't prepared to commit himself further than that just yet, even though the cool, dry touch of Crowley's lips was very sweet. It always was..

"You soft thing," Aziraphale said, and Crowley grimaced, brushing off the insult with a flip of long fingers. The fragrance of fig leaves floated in the air, cfresh and green, and behind it, the sharp ozonic zing of looming rain. Aziraphale almost could not smell the faint, corrupt scent of brimstone, and at some point in time it had ceased to register in his nose as a bad smell at all. An acquired taste, like olives, and he did adore olives. 

"Don't get too attached to old Valentinus. My boy Claudius Gothica likes him well enough for now, but he's pretty down on Christians right now, and your friend doesn't know when to shut up and be amusing. It's not going to end well, you know."

"It rarely does," Aziraphale said, trying to ignore a prickle of jealousy at the "my boy". Crowley probably only intended to suggest the Emperor was headed for hellfire. "I'm not really sure it's supposed to end well in this case."

"Singled out for glorious martyrdom?"

"I'm afraid so." Aziraphale was aware of the distaste and bitterness at the waste showing through in his voice, and Crowley's sharp sidelong gaze at his tone. He changed the subject quickly. "So you're assigned to the Emperor?"

"Yeah. Same cause as you, really, only from the other side. Poor old Valentinus gets executed, both sides are happy. All a lot of work from both of us for something that's bound to happen anyway, given how desperately Valentinus is hungering for a martyr's crown."

"That's not very tactful."

"Sorry. It's just... It's a beautiful planet, Aziraphale." The warm wind rustled softly in his dark curls. Even the wind made Crowley look devastatingly handsome, but of course temptation was his nature, just as love was Aziraphale's nature. It was unfair to blame him, or the wind, for that. "Lots of entertaining things to do that don't involve harmless, big-mouthed old men having their stupid heads cut off. And look at us, hurrying some poor mortal to his eternal fate, from both opposing sides. Makes you wonder what it's all about, eh?"

"I try not to wonder," Aziraphale said, primly. "We're just doing our divinely appointed jobs. Or infernally apppinted. Although I do always say that even demons are bound to follow God's will, and however hard you attempt to do evil, all you are achieving is testing and punishing humanity in the way He intended."

"Don't start on theology, angel, you'll ruin my mood."

"You started it."

Crowley didn't snap up the bait. He was oddly quiet and thoughtful, and Aziraphale didn't quite like it. He slid a hand under Crowley's chin, tilting it to examine the expression. Crowley's gaze slid away.

"What's bothering you? Don't you have an orgy to be at?"

"Those couples. Nothing is forcing them to be together. They'd be so much better off, you'd think, if they could just keep away from each other, or at least be discreet about it while the Emperor cools off. But there they were, risking imprisonment and death just to be married. It's just words, we know that. No one was there to pronounce Adam and Eve married. Stupid thing to die for."

"I suppose," Aziraphale said, aware he was edging around some dangerous territory, "there's some value in having a concrete arrangement. When you know you are going to spend your life by someone's side, and that even when you are apart you will come back together, it can be important to affirm that."

"An arrangement."

Crowley was frowning with the corner of his lip pulled down, brow wrinkled in thought. Aziraphale leaned in closer and kissed his eyelids to distract him. Arguably chaste, you could see men kiss each other's eyes like that every day on the street, but Aziraphale knew how it affected Crowley, to have the visible signs of his demon nature caressed. Crowley's nature was temptation and Aziraphale's was love, but in four thousand years of friendship, it would have been odd if neither had learned from the other. Crowley was shivered, and not from the wind, his lids fluttering in tiny sensitive movements under Aziraphale's lips.

When the demon leaned forward to kiss him in return, the press of Crowley's lips was less friendly and more insistent, arms and legs winding around the angel to pull him close.

"Come inside, dear heart," Aziraphale said. "There's a storm brewing, and I've missed you."

"Inviting a demon into your home? Don't you know what might happen?"

"I certainly hope so." They kissed again, open-mouthed this time, tongues just brushing in promise.

Temptation and love, love and temptation. Not a simple job detangling them, sometimes. It all seemed clear-cut up in Heaven, good and evil, right and wrong. Two sides. But humans were all tangled up together down him, and they had spent four millennia among them, and the threads didn't seem so clear now. Aziraphale wasn't even sure, Crowley's mouth so very sweet and so very beloved and, yes, _tempting_ , that he wanted to detangle them, or could do so without ripping his soul to pieces. He sighed as their kiss ended, and the first lightning shot blue light in the distance. Too far away to be a warning.

"Yeah, me too," said Crowley, who was closer to understanding Aziraphale than anyone else, and had never had to hear the words. "Always. Look. Valentinus was giving these to the couples as mementos. Silly, really. I took two. Not sure why. Don't suppose... I mean, you might as well have one. No point keeping two for myself."

Aziraphale looked at the token pressed into his hand. An abstract representation of a heart, cut out of parchment. _He's giving me his heart,_ whispered an errant thought, and then, cupping Crowley's cheek in his hand and feeling the blood rush hot through it, _I already have it._. He'd thought so before, at times when Crowley was in an especially good or bad mood, but it was nice to be sure.

"Thank you. I'll cherish it," he said, wondering if Crowley knew the same of him. He tucked it against his skin. "Keep its partner safe for me."

"Sure." Crowley was clearly deeply embarrassed, looking anywhere but at Aziraphale, and oh, Aziraphale loved him. "Look, a bit of parchment is nothing to be grateful for, but you did mention going inside if you're feeling particularly grateful."

"I like pieces of parchment." Aziraphale picked him up bodily, ignoring the hiss of protest, and carried him inside, against protests at the loss of dignity. The parchment heart crackled against his skin, but all he could think of was the way Crowley's own heart thudded against his chest, meeting his, beat for beat, echoing the first large splatters of rain.


End file.
